A report from market research firm Interactive Data Corp. (IDC) last month gave some surprising news -- "Windows Phone posted the largest year-over-year gain among the leading operating systems, more than doubling its size from a year ago."

Led by Finnish phonemaker Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V) -- once the world's largest smartphone maker and currently the company behind roughly four out of every five Windows Phones shipped -- Windows Phone shipped 7.0m units in Q1 2013 for a 3.2 percent market share; slightly ahead of BlackBerry Ltd.'s (TSE:BB) 6.3m units shipped (and 2.9 percent market share). Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android widened its lead for the quarter, outselling Apple, Inc. (AAPL) more than 4-to-1, with a 79 percent market share.

Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows Phone product manager Larry Lieberman gave an interview to The Verge this week cheering the third place "victory". He comments, "We think we're solidly the third ecosystem right now. That's a huge announcement in some respects. [Windows Phone is] growing faster than anyone else right now."

The news must be bitter for BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins who has long stated that his ambition for his firm is to capture third place in the mobile market.

As for the Windows Phone product chief, he's dismissive of BlackBerry, commenting, "I don't think they can bring to the table some of the things we have. The fact like we're delivering across such a different set of price points to such a large audience."

After initially pledging to follow in Apple's line with Windows Phone, it now appears that Microsoft is aiming to emulate Google, whose OS is on three out of every four smartphones sold today. Microsoft and Nokia are hoping that sales of budget handsets will help to drive Windows Phone up a similar path of meteoric growth to Android.

Mr. Lieberman says that Microsoft continues its efforts to woo developers via a growing user base and easy to use APIs. He did not comment on the lack of a Windows Phone 8.1 preview at Microsoft's annual BUILD Conference, which wraps up tomorrow. He did hint at one possible feature, though, confirming that a notification center is the feature that is most often request in user feedback messages to Microsoft.

Ultimately Microsoft's decision not to tip its hand too early with WP8.1 may be a wise decision -- after all, early publication of Windows Phone 8 details depressed Windows Phone 7.5 sales last year. By contrast Apple and Google tend to announce new OS releases just befor they hit the market, to avoid a sales slowdown.

I love how he used comScore numbers which are only for the U.S. and before Verizon started selling the Windows phone Nokia 925 instead of using the Kantar Worldpanel ComTech numbers which are for the entire world. Is someones trying to get a job in Apples marketing group?

Among people who bought a Windows Phone in the last year, 23 percent jumped ship from Android, while 25 percent upgraded from another Windows Phone and 42 percent moved up from a feature phone.

Only going to accelerate more after July 11th when Nokia drops the 41 megapixel EOS Bomb on everyone.

Windows Phone grew in the US to 5.6% and is in double digits in several parts of the world now.

The latest Kantar Worldpanel ComTech figures show Windows Phone with an 8.4% market share in the U.K., a 6.4% market share in Germany , a 10.5% market share in Italy, and a 6.2% market share in France.

Canalys concludes that by 2017, Windows Phone will nearly overtake the iPhone in market share. Ill wager it will happen in 2015.

In the important battle for developer time, being 3rd and growing definitely means "not a waste of time to code for this."

Actually, the relative newness of WP means a startup might have an easier time writing a breakthrough app. In iOS and Android, it may be a bit challenging standing out from all the chaff games and apps.